January 14, 2025
by David Long at ASB Bank Tennis Centre
NZoom

The sensational Rafael Nadal is through to the quarterfinals of the Heineken Open in Auckland after winning his second thrilling match in as many days to defeat Croatian qualifier 7-6 7-6 on Wednesday evening.

Nadal has quickly become the crowd favourite at Tennis Lane with his brash style of play and enigmatic nature and it will be no disappointment at all if he goes on two win his first ever title in Auckland.

Dressed in a blood red sleeveless shirt and a bandanna around his head that would look equally at home on the mean streets of Compton, LA as it does on the tennis court, Nadal lights up a stadium with his presence, and his ultra aggressive game means that he wins more points than his opponent loses.

Ancic has an almighty serve that few people can live with, but he has the tendency to panic in the big points and that proved to be his downfall in this match.

Nadal is a player who hits few aces, he hit four in this match and just three in the first round, but he has the touch of a maestro and can either bamb a ball across the net to fall within a centimetre of the baseline or caress it on the volley to leave his opponent statuesque.

However Ancic did go into the match with plenty of confidence after winning his fourth straight match in five days and he had two break points in the seventh game and took the advantage with the second of them.

At 5-4 he was in a position to serve for the set, but that was the signal for the Spaniard to pick up his game. First he broke back, and then he whitewashed Ancic in the tiebreak winning it to love.

Ancic broke again in the second game of the next set to once again be in the driving seat.

Nadal had a break point in the next game, but in the rally of the match Ancic won after Nadal came in to play a deft shot over the net, but Ancic raced in from the baseline to blast the winner past him.

Ancic won the game with yet another of his booming aces, but Nadal did get the break back in the seventh game when Ancic over-hit a volley with a forehand shot while running into the net.

Once again the match went into a tiebreak after a short rain delay and when the Croatian went into a 5-0 lead it looked as if this tiebreak was going to be as lopsided as the last.

But once again the electrifying Spaniard raised his game as Ancic lost confidence and started making unforced errors and amazingly Nadal won 8-6 to win in straight sets and go through to play France's Gregory Carraz in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile later on Centre Court Simon Rea and Nielsen lost their second round doubles match to the South Africans Jeff Coetzee and Chris Haggard 6-2 6-2.

Source: nzoom